1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for super-resolution microscopy and, more particularly, to a method for non-fluorescence higher harmonic generation ground state depletion super-resolution microscopy.
2. Description of Related Art
The recently developed high-resolution STED (stimulated emission depletion) microscopes and STED microscopy have overcome the 200-nm upper limit of resolution imposed by diffraction on the conventional fluorescence microscopes. Using the innovative point-spread function technique, STED microscopes have a resolution more than ten times as high as that of their traditional counterparts and can therefore provide much finer microscopic images.
One major limitation on the application of STED microscopy, however, is that the STED technique can only be used to modulate, and form microscopic images with, fluorescence signals. The conventional STED ultra-resolution microscopy is used mainly in fluorescence-related applications and achieves ultra-high resolution by modulating fluorescence intensity with STED; it does not work or cannot offer any help when it is desired to modulate, or form microscopic images with, non-fluorescence signals.
In view of this, it has been a common goal of development and innovation in the fields of cell analysis, spatial domain analysis, and microscopy to extend the currently limited use of STED ultra-resolution microscopy in modulating fluorescence signals alone, and to create a useful and easy-to-implement method for non-fluorescence STED microscopy that features fast and accurate detection, stable imaging, and high spatial domain resolution, thereby expanding the application of STED to the modulation and detection of non-fluorescence signals.